story

Good Daughter

Written by Hana Shafi, Illustration by Justine Wong

"Good Daughter" is a story of reckoning with divergence from a narrative that was written for you, long before you could even understand what it meant. What does it mean to be someone's child? The answer might be something you can feel but can’t really explain; something deeply lineal that you can trace down to the bone. It’s that line from Lemonade, by the poet Warsan Shire: “You look nothing like your mother. You look everything like your mother.”

"You can't base a life on the best intentions of others," Hana Shafi writes. In a story carefully unfolded like a well-worn map, a pilgrimage, Hana has wandered from paths of inheritance and duty. She is familiar with the territory travelled alongside her parents, the great yawning divide between them, and where they are now. The divide is being bridged.

My parents had weaved an intricate story of what my life would be. It was a story in which they imagined me excelling in their preferred career choices. It was also one where they saw my creative and artistic potential and hoped that somehow, on the side, I would do something unforgettable with it. Like my dad said: “You could be the next J.K. Rowling, Hana.” Meaning, if you were going to do something risky, you can’t just be good at it. You have to be a goddamn legend. This is the script they hoped I would follow.

— Hana Shafi

justine Wong

Justine is an illustrator and multimedia artist who has become recognized for her compelling illustrative life in Japan. She is best known as the creator “21 Days in Japan” in which she created one hundred paintings of Japanese food from her travels. Her solo show “No Hard Feelings”, was shown both around Canada and Tokyo. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Lucky Peach, The Walrus, and The Cleaver Quarterly. When she is not illustrating, she is a dedicated member of Lunchroom Toronto and Makeshift Collective, creative collectives and co-working spaces based in Toronto where they practice and learn new ways to rebuild the way we work and create together.

hana shafi

Hana Shafi is a Toronto-based writer and artist who illustrates under the name Frizz Kid. A graduate of Ryerson University’s Journalism program, she has published articles in publications such as The Walrus, Hazlitt, This Magazine, Torontoist, Huffington Post, and has been featured on Buzzfeed India, Buzzfeed Canada, CBC, Flare Magazine, Mashable, and Shameless. Known on Instagram for her weekly affirmation series, she is also the recipient of the Women Who Inspire Award, from the Canadian Council for Muslim Women. It Begins With The Body is her first book.